K-Ville: Flood, Wind, and Fire (Episode 8)

Flood, Wind, and Fire: Boulet and Cobb get some help from Fire Marshall McGillis -- with sexy results!The first real snow of the season hit Chicago (read: where this recapper lives) this weekend. Which means that not only is Chicago all pretty and wintry for, like, a hot second before the gray slush moves in until April, but cable reception in my neighborhood was, to say the least spotty. It's still snowing, but at least my reception recovered. Too bad it didn't do it in time for me to get a clear DVR copy of this week's episode of K-Ville, "Flood, Wind, and Fire". Now, I know I could just watch the full episode on the FOX web site but in support of the striking WGA writers (whose ranks I hope to join one day), I won't watch it. So if my recap seems a bit light on actual plot development (and heavy on Cole Hauser's hotness), blame my integrity.

Insurance adjuster Sheldon Lear doesn't believe that the fire that destroyed Loretta Sweeney's home was set by accident. Since Katrina, many homeowners had been setting burning down their storm-damaged houses in the hopes of claiming some damages that were denied by the hurricane. Naturally, Loretta takes offense at the notion that she would do such a thing, but backs off when Sheldon brandishes a pistol. Her push comes to shove, and Sheldon stumbles over our body of the week, which is as extra crispy as burnt corpses can be.

Arriving at the scene, Cobb and Boulet get some investigating assistance from hot-but-not-in-a-burning-way, fire marshal Eileen McGillis. She believes the death was accidental, with the absence of teeth implying the dead to be homeless, or maybe a squatter in the house. When Cobb sees that the jaw is cracked, it seems that the teeth were bashed out, removing the only easy way that this body could be identified. Arson? Maybe. Murder? Oh, yeah.

When Eileen confirms that it's arson, and the medical examiner finds traces of a chemical called DHT which accelerates fires but does not spread them, the number of suspects narrows. Back at the remains of Loretta's house, Eileen is stumped by how it compares to other recent fires that were similar, but had no traces of DHT.

The current theory is that Loretta and the other affected homeowners hired someone to set the fires for insurance money. Boulet isn't buying it, as one of the victims, Edna, cared for his mother, and could not be the kind of person who'd commit such a crime. What they do have in common is that each case was handled by TBD Insurance. Charlie (yes, that Charlie -- we'll get to him in a second) has a mising persons report for Brian Studler, an adjustor for TBD. Could it be his corpse they found at the site? Meanwhile, interviews with the homeowners conducted by the police have Boulet sure that there is no way they were involved in the fires.

Cobb and Boulet talk to Sheldon, who says that the Brian hated his job, hated having to deny claims to customers. There were four claims that he paid out to the maximum, though, for which he got a lot of trouble. One of the lucky homeowners, Burt Reynolds (no, not that Burt Reynolds) remembered Brian as a fair man. When accused of setting the fire for his own home, he clams up and tells them to take it to fire marshal Eileen.

Cobb questions Eileen, who has discovered that the purchase of DMT requires a license. Other things about Eileen? She was February in a firefighters charity calendar. Also, she wants to sleep with Cobb who, being a gentleman (and, I imagine, horny), obliges.

Another of the four homeowners, Ernie, has a license to buy DHT but no DHT at his new home. He also appears to have no motive -- he was prepared to leave New Orleans for a better job in Houston before the claim came through. He and his family stayed to be near his mother-in-law. When Eileen's excitement (and a display of what DHT can do at police HQ) freaks out Cobb, he digs up an arrest record from her adolescence. She pleads teenage rebellion, but insists she didn't set any of the fires. Just in time, Boulet comes through with a lead -- Burt and Ernie (ha!) worked at the same chemical firm that had gone bust years before. As did the two other homeowners whose claims were paid out by TBD. Arriving at Ernie's with Charlie, they catch Burt making Ernie write out a suicide note. Ernie had no idea that Brian was in the house --while he claims responsibility for the fire, he did not knowingly kill Brian. In the inevitable standoff, Boulet asks Burt to consider what happens to his family if they are forced to kill him. Burt and Ernie surrender, and are taken into custody.

Ernie admits at HQ that the plan was Burt's -- they'd get rebuilt homes, and Brian could feel good about himself. But when the other six houses were burnt, to draw attention away from them, Brian had a change of heart, and threatened to turn him and the other conspirators in. Burt had no choice but to kill him.

Cobb apologizes to Eileen, who doesn't crack. Well, not much -- she says she'll get him a copy of the calendar.

At the Boulet household, Boulet's wages aren't enough to catch up on bills. He insists that Ayana not get a job, as Tawni should have one parent at home. However, the discovery of dry rot that they cannot afford to repair forces Boulet to consider serious action. When a newly reinstated Charlie, pulling desk duty, tells him about an informant who got to keep $10,000 in a locker at Union Passenger Terminal that had been seized by police, Boulet almost breaks into the locker, but stops short of the crime. Regardless, Charlie confronts him outside the terminal. Turns out the condition of his return to the force, as imposed by Emgry, was to set traps for dirty cops. Boulet feels betrayed again, though Charlie is insistent when he says that dirty cops are not his brothers. There's a security camera which caught Boulet's visit on tape, but Charlie tells Embry that the tape was destroyed, leaving Boulet in the clear.

Not only did he not get busted for almost taking money from the NOPD, Boulet arrives home to find volunteers removing the old drywall with new drywall. It seems that TBD, in the face of the recent arson planned in part by their late employee, didn't want the story to get out, and so settled quickly with the six innocent homeowners. Edna tells Boulet that as he was so helpful in solving the case, and getting their reward, the least they could do was pool together some of their money to fix his house. Boulet's not got many words to express himself, so the tears he works so hard to hold back do that for him.